Derrick Morgan, King of Ska

Derrick Morgan, about to be interviewed.

The drummer of the backing band introducing himself right before practice.

A good friend of mine brought the great Jamaican singer Derrick Morgan to the US to play a show and be filmed and interviewed for a documentary. I spent a good 30-odd hours driving, shooting, and doing general scutwork where I could to help with the process.

Honestly, the day was a little weird. I’ve been listening to 60s Jamaican music for something like thirteen years now, and it’s almost always the music I can turn to to make everything in my life a little bit better, and I know the stories and I know the mythology, but honestly, it’s so far removed from my life that it may as well be fiction. Having someone who was actually there for all of that sitting in the back of my car while I’m driving through Kenmore Square, talking fluently about how the Celtics are doing this year and about how he told Bob Marley that he should really go cut a record while they were doing a bricklaying job together back before they were established singers kind of blows my mind.

Also, the Boston Globe wrote up a very nice story right before the show.